Nonprofit collecting toys for abused children

A nonprofit focused on fighting local child abuse launched a holiday gift drive this week to benefit abused, abandoned and neglected children.

Promises2Kids has placed more than 300 bins at office buildings, schools, grocery stores and restaurants throughout San Diego County ﻿to collect new, unwrapped gifts. The collection will run through Dec. 14, culminating with a gift drive at Walmart on Shawline Street in San Diego from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. that day.

The nonprofit said 12,000 gifts were delivered to foster children across the county last year.

Items sought include toys, board games, books, clothing, electronics, sporting equipment, DVDs, and arts and crafts supplies. Gifts for teens are especially needed. Volunteers are needed to deliver the gifts the week of Dec. 21. For more information, go to promises2kids.com.

The ceremony includes fireworks, snow showers, a visit from Santa and a performance by The Jumpitz, an award-winning interactive group that will perform songs from its DVD, “Finding Fun!”

The event honors Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern California, which awards grants and provides support programs to children and their families.

Spelling and McDermott will participate in the tree-lighting event with their children, Liam and Stella. ﻿The couple are in production for the fifth season of the reality series “Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood,” set to air in spring 2010 on the Oxygen network. Legoland is at 1 Legoland Drive in Carlsbad.

Could city residents and businesses stomach a tax increase to support those and other services?

Faced with a nearly $3 million structural deficit in the next decade, city officials have hired a firm to survey the community on its level of satisfaction with municipal services. The $27,000 survey, to be conducted by Encinitas’ True North Research Inc., will also gauge whether residents and businesses would support cutting services or paying higher taxes.

“We don’t have enough revenue coming in to provide the services the public expects,” said Lemon Grove Councilman George Gastil. “So we’re going to have to give them a choice.”

The plans, approved by the Lemon Grove City Council this month, call for the firm to interview 300 to 400 residents and 50 businesses in the first weeks of December. City Manager Graham Mitchell said respondents will be randomly selected and contacted by phone. Survey takers will have the option of responding to questions online, he said, and the responses are expected to take about 15 minutes.

Mitchell said that the questions have not yet been completed, but that they will ask about services ranging from code enforcement to fire and recreation services. The city has struggled with tight budgets, and Mitchell said more difficult financial decisions are expected in the next year.